The committee’s initial recommendation called for closing 16 schools and reconfiguring 11 others over a decade. The advisory group, formerly referred to as the long-range facilities committee, had planned to take the proposal to the public for feedback last week, until trustees stepped in and put the brakes on the process at that May meeting.

The board members had their own thoughts, after hearing from constituents. They asked the committee to revisit the plan, taking into account their recommendations, and get them a revised document by June 19. District spokeswoman Leslie Price said there’s a lot of work to do, so the group likely won’t be done until some time in July.

SAISD is in the midst of down-sizing to address years of declining enrollment, an issue urban school districts across the nation are facing as they lose families to the suburbs, deal with a decline in the school-age population and compete with private and charter schools for students.

SAISD has lost about one-third of its enrollment over the past four decades, putting the student count at about 55,000 today. However, the district did not close schools at a pace commensurate with the decline, and the result is operating inefficiencies district officials say cannot continue. State funding is based on student attendance — fewer students means less state funding — and the cost of educating students continues to rise as districts try to implement programs that will help them meet federal and state accountability standards.

The district closed six schools last year — two of them, though, were reopened this year as college-preparatory schools — and Durón and trustees made it clear at the time that additional closures were imminent.

The process for this round of closures first began in January 2008, when a “visioning” committee, which included community members appointed by the district, began developing a blueprint for the future of SAISD schools. It was the beginning of a conversation about what the ideal SAISD school would look like and how to bring that school to fruition. That visioning committee morphed into the facilities group, though additional members were added, that developed the closures recommendations.

Click here to read minutes (in PDF format) of the meetings that the facilities task force held to develop the closures plan.